You Know You Were an 80s Gamer if…

This is a milestone month for me. We are expecting our third child to come any day now and I turn 40 this Saturday. I started gaming with the Moldvay Basic Set of Dungeons & Dragons, making this my 30th year of gaming as well!

Given the fact that I need to lighten my load a bit, and the fact that yesterday was April Fool’s Day, I thought I’d celebrate my Neo-Grognardness with a nostalgic look back at my 80s gaming era.

So without further ado, you know you were an 80s Gamer if…

– you played AD&D. D&D was for amateurs.

– regardless of system, you still call published adventures “modules.”

– you have fond memories of frying monsters with those cool laser weapons from the Barrier Peaks.

– you introduced the metric system to your fantasy world just to make coin conversions easier.

– the mention of FASERIP makes you smile.

– you had arguments over what stats you and your buddies should have before giving yourselves superpowers.

– you screamed at the television that “Acrobat” was not a proper AD&D class.

– at least one of your favorite PCs is written on loose leaf.

– one of your PCs died during character creation.

– you hate Tom Hanks.

– your group once wiped out an entire pantheon of gods just for the bragging rights and the treasure.

– you know the difference between a hireling and a henchman.

– you judge the quality of a post-apocalyptic RPG on how well it can emulate Thundarr the Barbarian.

– you own a d30 and still don’t know what to do with it.

– you wonder why all the new Middle-Earth stuff ignores the Court of Ardor.

– at least one of your PCs carried a three-bladed sword.

– you remember exactly where you were the first time you laid eyes upon Shadowrun.

– at least one of your PCs met a hilarious end due to an Arms Law/Claw Law critical hit.

– you were ticked off that someone tried to pass off a giant shuriken as a glaive (but you still made up stats for it).

– you bemoan all of the options the latest iterations of D&D offer for PCs and fondly remember when all you needed to make an AD&D character was four hardbacks, six or seven issues of Dragon Magazine, one issue of White Dwarf, a couple of rules nicked from D&D, and several house rules.

– you thought the cartoon was stupid and couldn’t wait for someone to make a serious D&D movie, which you now regret.

Thanks for reading! I hope you got a chuckle out of these and I promise to write a meatier article next time!

About The Author

Walt’s been a game master ever since he accidentally picked up the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set in 1982. He became a freelance RPG writer in 2005 and is currently the Victoriana Line Developer for Cubicle 7. Walt lives in Springfield, PA with his wife Helena and their three children, Leianna, Stephen, and Zoe.

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